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First federal woman speaker Joan Child dies

The first female speaker of the federal parliament, Joan Child, has died aged 91.

Joan Child, the first female Speaker of federal parliament, has died at the age of 91.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has paid tribute to Ms Child, saying she is deeply saddened by her death at the weekend and she will remain a source of inspiration.

''With Joan Child's passing, Australia has lost one of its pioneering female political leaders, and I have lost a role model,'' Ms Gillard said.

Ms Child was elected to the Melbourne seat of Henty in 1974, when she became the first female Labor member of the House of Representatives and only the fourth woman ever elected to the House.

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She was Speaker from 1986 to 1989 under the Hawke government, and retired from parliament the following year.

Until the election of Labor's Anna Burke last October, Ms Child had been the only female Speaker.

Ms Burke also paid tribute to Ms Child, telling ABC Radio on Monday morning that the former speaker was still loved in the community she had represented.

''She called me when I was elected speaker and said hang tough,'' Ms Burke said. ''She was pretty fierce . . . Joan was there in a pretty difficuly stage - she had Paul Keating to contend with . . . and she stood up to it.''

Ms Burke said when Ms Child was first elected ''no one knew what to call her''.

''It started off as Mrs Speaker,'' she said. Ms Burke noted that when the title was changed to Madam Speaker, Ms Child wryly observed that she was not in charge of a brothel.

''She showed that by applying the rules as they are, being independent and showing no favouritism that this was how parliament should be run,'' Ms Burke said.

Ms Gillard said in a statement that Ms Child came to politics later in life, bringing ''remarkable gifts of common sense, good humour and persistence against the odds''.

Widowed at a young age, she had brought up five boys on her own and for a time worked as a cleaner to make ends meet.